Finger guard for printing presses



a. H. DUFOURJ FINGER GUARD FOR PRINTING PRt SSES. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 24. I910,

1,421,424 Patented Jam, 1922..

Uhll'til stares earner orrice] GEORGE E. DUFOUB, OF OAK PARK, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO MARSHALL FIELD & COIVIPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A. CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS:

FINGER GUARD FOR PRINTING PRESSES.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented July 4,1922.

Application filed June 24, 1920. Serial No. 391,314.

' T all wkome't may concern.

Be it known that I, Gnonon H. DUFoUn, a citizen of the United States, residing'at Oak Park, in the county of Cook and State of Ellinois, have invented certain, new and useful Improvements in Finger Guards for Printing Presses of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to a guard to be mounted upon a printing press for the purpose or" preventing the introduction of the fingers of the operator into the path of the platen during the operation of the press, and has for its object to provide a guard of simple and eliicient construction which, while adapted to be permanently mounted upon the press, may be removed from and held out oi? obstructing position while the printing form is being changed, and the means which holds it out of such position will be so connected with the controlling mechanism of the press as to insure return of the guard to obstructing position by the mere act of releasing the press to its operation.

In the accompanying drawing- Figure 1 is a front view, and Figure 2 a side elevation of a printing press in which the subject-matter of the present invention has been embodied by way of illustration.

1 represents the bed, and 2 the platen of the press, which platen is operated to and from the bed through means of the crosshead 3 and links 4. Ordinarily this operation follows automatically the throw imparted to a clutch lever 5 controlled by a hand lerer 6. These details of construction, however, and the particular type of press shown are not of the essence of the present invention, but are merely selected for purposes of illustration.

7 represents a finger guard adapted to as sume such relation to the platen 2 as will prevent introduction of the fingers into the path of the platen while admitting beneath it the card or other material to be printed upon. This finger guard may, however, swing upon the pivot 8 through the medium of the radius arm 9 (preferably in the form of a sheet metal apron) from the full line position shown in Figures 1 and 2 to the dotted line position shown in Figure 2, in order to afiord access to the space beneath the platen for changing the printing form, fiX- ing the stops, or making other adjustments.

Normally, the finger guard will beheld in the position shown in full lines by means of return spring 10 anchored atone end 10 to a fixed pintle 8 upon, which the guard swings, and having its other end 10 so connected to one of the ears 9 of the radius arm 9as to tend at all times to swing the radius arm toward protecting position.

The, guard 7 is removed by hand from obstructing position, but is retained in its elevated position by means of a stop 11, preferably positioned'resiliently in the path of the radius arm so that it automatically snaps into engagement with the latter. Detent 11, however, is mounted upon an arm 12, or otherwise connected through such an arm or equivalent means with the clutch lever 5 which releases the press to its automatic clutch mechanism that develops the printing stroke; so that when the lever ,6 is voluntarily moved to i eleasethe press, the guard 7 will also be released and swingrapidly into obstructing position before the platen 2, andthere re main until it is voluntarily returned to its uppermost or dotted line position, by which time the press will have come to rest and make it safe to remove the work.

It, through inadvertence, the operator should fail to immediately remove his fingers before releasing the press to execute the printing stroke, the guard 7 will be snapped vigorously down upon the fingers and obviously excite the operator to involuntarily and instantaneous withdrawal of the fingers. Freedom of the guard to swing bodily outwardly will obviously avoid any barrier to such withdrawal of the fingers. It is preferred to further facilitate withdrawal of the fingers, and particularly when the guard is in barrier position, by making the lower portion of the guard 7 in the form of a gate 13 swinging upon a pivot 14 so that it may yield in the direction of withdrawal; but the connection 1a is of such nature that the gate 13 cannot swing dangerously beyond the vertical when in guarding position, so that it would not be practicable for the operator to inadvertently insert the fingers at the wrong moment.

In addition to its apron-like structure which guards the front of the platen, the guard 7 is preferably provided with a check I plate 7 which extends inwardly in position to exclude the fingers from the side of the platen.

I claim:

1. In a printing press, a finger guard adapted to normally assume a position to bar access to the space between the impression members of the press, butmovable to a position remote therefrom, a detent for holding the guard in its last-named position, and means for controlling the press which also controls said detent. v

2. A guard for presses, comprising a guard member, a pivoted radius arm adapted extending from said lever, and a releasable Y detent controlled by said arm normally adapted to restrain said radius arm away a from bearing position.

4. In a finger guard for printing presses, a guard member mounted to normally assume guarding position and movable also to a positionremotefrom guarding position, said guard member comprising a swinging gate rigid against movement in the direction of introduction of the fingers to the press, but yielding in the direction of withdrawal of the fingers.

5. In a printing press, the combination of impression members, means for actuating adapted to normally assume a barrier posi-- tion in relation to the printing members, and yielding'outwardly from said posit-ion.

7. A finger guard for printing presses having means for yieldingly holding it in barrier position with relation to the impression members of the press, but bodily yielding outwardly from said position.

8. A finger guard for printing presses adapted to assume a position in relation to the impression member of the press which will bar access of the fingers to said member while permitting the introduction of material to be printed; said guard being bodily removable from such barrier position, and having a portion thereof yielding outwardly from said impression member.

Signed at'Oak Park, Illinois,this 21st day of June, 1920.

GEORGE H. DUFOUR 

